Fruit-box brace



April 14, 1925.

s. L. CONLAN ET AL FRUIT BOX BRACE Filed April 7, 1924 I/v VENTCWJ 5 1 v C 0/1/4/2/ Ff? 006/7- Patented Apr. 14, 1925.

SIDNEY L. CONLAN, OFO'AKLAND; AND PLOUGi-H,TOFIINGLEWUOD l CALIFORNIA.

FRUIT-BOX 'BRACE.

- Application filed April 7,

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it hereby known that we, SIDNEY L. CONLAN and Hnnnnn'r F. PLOUGH, citizens of the United States, and residents, respectively, of Oakland, county of Alameda, and-- State of California, and Inglewood, county of Los :rngeles, and Stateof California, have invented a new and useful lmprtwement in FrititdSoz; Braces, off-"which the following is specification;

V This invention relates more particularly to the transportation of greenfruit.

An object of our invention is the pro vision of meansfor securely "bracing fruit carriers in refrigerator cars to prevent same from shifting and becoming damaged in shipping.

A secon'dobject is the elimination of waste lumber entailed every time the wooden braces, now in common use, are discarded after the car is unloaded.

A third object is the saving of a large portion of the time required to install the usual wooden braces.

A fourth object is the provision of an exceedingly simple and efficient means (for bracing fruit boxes in cars, which means will be capable of greater range than is possible in the device described in our a plication, Serial No. 683,430, filed December 29, 1923, over which this device is an improvement.

A fifth object is to reduce the number of parts required, and to prevent these parts from becoming separated during storage.

lVe accomplish these results in the manner set forth in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of the device extended to its limit between two stacks of fruit boxes. Figure 2 is a section tln'ougli one of the expanding jacks showing the braces in the position of utmost contraction. Figure 3 is a section along the line 38 in Figure 1.

It will be understood that this device is an improvement over the form described in the application above mention. In this case we prefer to dispense with one of the jacks and use slightly heavier channels of the type known as car building channels, which are best adapted for the purpose, as these channels have stronger side members than have the standard channels, and

1924:. Serial No. 704,698.

it is in this direction thatstr'ength desired. i

'Anotl1er object in employing two jacks instead of three is to facilitate the operation of the jacks themselves; althouglritmust be understood that-three-jacks can be employed if so desired;

It willbe observed that by this construction all of the partsof the deVice are-held together and can only be 'separa ted by the operation of the jacksithemselves. Similar numbers of reference refe-r' 'to the same parts throughout the -:several views.

Referring in detail to thei drawingywe' have illustrated the fru'it boxes lO 'which are piled from the can ends-toward-the center door and are separated vertica-lly by the spacer bars 11, which extend to the sides of the refrigerator car, as is the c0mmon practice.

The space left between the boxes in the doorway of the cars varies with the kind of boxes being packed, and other factors, from fourteen inches up to three feet or more.

A brace, as shown in Figure 1, is placed between each row of boxes, and this brace consists of the box-engaging channel irons 12 and 13 between. which are placed the jacks in which this improvement resides.

' To the ehanneliron 12 is loosely hinged, by means of the pin 14,, the hollow lefthand screw 15. One of the corners 16 of the screw 15 is rounded and the other corner 17 is square and acts as a stop against the channel, although in some cases we prefer to omit the square corner altogether.

On the screw 15 is placed an internally threaded sleeve 18 whose end 19 has a reduced diameter and is also threaded to receive the smaller right-hand screw 20 which is hinged to the member 13 by the pin 21. The end 19 is provided with a hexagonal exterior 22 to receive an operating wrench (not shown). The two jacks are exactly alike, and as many sets of the device as shown in Figure 1 are required as there are rows of boxes in the. width of the car.

Holes 23 may be provided in the channel irons 12 and 13 for nailing into the boxes 10 in order to prevent the bracesfrom falling after unusually rough handling of the car.

The operation of our device as follows: After the boxes 10 are piled into the car, as

ill)

suggested, leaving only a short space, some times as littlev as fourteen inches, in the doorway of the car, the braces are contracted sufiiciently to be placed in the breach and expanded by operating the jacks with a wrench. If desired, enough nails can be driven into the holes 23 to insure the braces remaining in an upright position under all circumstances. That is all there is to it.

WVhen the cars are empty, the braces are stored away in overhead hangers, as may be found most convenient.

By this construction we are enabled to secure a large working range for the brace, which of course is very desirable. While it would be possible to use a ratchet jack in place of the screw, this style of expanding device is not deemed practicable owing to the limited space in which the operator is often called upon to work. Furthermore, greater thrust can be secured by the rotary motion of the screws than by the ratcheting action of other devices.

While we have indicated our jacks as attached to the channel irons by hinges this is not actually required, although it is considered to be the best form since it holds the device intact and no strain is placed on the hinges, since the pins are sufficiently loose to transfer the load from the screws directly to the channel irons themselves. In some instances it might be desired to employ a T iron instead of a channel. This can be done without departing from the spirit of our invention.

lVe claim:

A fruit brace having, in combination, a pair of upright channel members adapted to be nailed between the boxes of fruit stacked in the ends of a car, said members having their channel sides facing each other; pairs of tubular members between said channels, said tubes having a large diameter internal thread almost their entire length and a small diameter internal thread at one end thereof; screws hinged to one of said channels threading into the smaller threaded openings of said tubular members; a pair of externally threaded tubes hinged to the opposite channel and screwing into the larger openings in said first mentioned tubular member, said last mentioned tubular member having an opening large enough to receive said screw member.

SIDNEY L. CONLAN. HERBERT F. PLOUGH. 

